If Not For Kidnap Poetry

FRIDAY January 20th: KIDNAP PARTY: Kevin Sampsell, Bryan Coffelt, Chloe Caldwell, and Edward Mullany; Music by The We Shared Milk

2012-01-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

Please join us, in conjunction with Crow Arts Manor and Future Tense Books, for the

Lindbergh Baby of If Not For Kidnap!

We've got four all-star readers, killer music, and more booze than should probably be in one place. Some of this booze is donated by Crow Arts Manor, in honor of their classics book drive:

Crow Arts Manor literary library will be open to the public starting late this January. So far they've received generous donations of current titles from presses across the country, but are still trying to fill in the classics. If you bring 2 or more books to Kidnap of either poetry, short fiction, or literary criticism, they will give you a $15 discount on any of their future classes. If you only bring one, you get a high-five from the person of your choosing!

As for the entertainment, local hero writers KEVIN SAMPSELL and BRYAN COFFELT are joined by out-of-town champs CHLOE CALDWELL and EDWARD MULLANY and those irrepressible rockers THE WE SHARED MILK.

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When not editing and publishing books (with Bryan Coffelt!) for Future Tense Books or working at Powell's, KEVIN SAMPSELL writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A Pushcart Prize nominee for 2011, Sampsell's latest work appears in Best Sex Writing 2012, Everyday Genius, The Rumpus, Housefire, Prism Index, and the anthology, Nouns of Assemblage. He is the author the story collection, Creamy Bullets and the memoir, A Common Pornography.

CHLOE CALDWELL is a non-fiction writer living in upstate New York. Her first book of essays: Legs Get Led Astray, will be released by Future Tense Books in April of 2012. She writes a column for The Faster Times called “Love & Music.” Her essays have appeared in The Rumpus, Vol 1. Brooklyn and Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. She is forthcoming in The Nervous Breakdown and The New York Times.

BRYAN COFFELT is assistant editor & designer for Future Tense Books. His poetry and fiction has appeared in elimae, Shampoo, Opium Magazine, and The West Wind Review. He is really into doom metal right now.

EDWARD MULLANY grew up in Australia and in the American Midwest. His first book, If I Falter at the Gallows, was released by Publishing Genius in October 2011. His writing has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Tampa Review and other journals. He's a recipient of a Barthelme Memorial Fellowship in poetry.

what the press is saying about THE WE SHARED MILK
"...in firm command of a sound that has elements of hazed-out '70s and slack-jawed '90s, but sounds entirely up to date." -Portland Mercury
"When they put their sound down on tape, The We Shared Milk sound as if they’ve taken a couple of hits and eaten a couple sleeves of Oreos. .. Live, these guys are all power and energy." -Rose City Live

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Doors open at 7:30, bring anyone you like (seriously, if you don't like 'em, don't bring 'em), and if you're able, bring books to donate to Crow Arts Manor, money for the donation jar, snacks or refreshments to share, and your own gorgeous face.

No Kidnap December

2011-12-12T20:02:00.000-08:00

See you Friday, January 20th for a special Kidnap Party. 2012: Let's take it to the limit?

xo,

D & J

Tuesday, November 29th: Diana Salier, Amy Temple Harper, and Wolf in the Dreamcatcher

2011-11-23T18:57:00.000-08:00

Come down off your food binge with Amy and Diana! Forget about your hideous relatives with Wolf in the Dreamcatcher! Finally: the perfect proof that allows you to exist in the fine balance of relaxation and stimulation. Bring drinks, food, etc., etc., etc.. Doors are open... at 7:30, everyone is welcome.

Please note! If you like chapbooks--and who doesn't like chapbooks?--two brand-new, just-released, sure-to-be-classic chapbooks will be available for purchase from Amy & Diana.

Amy Temple Harper was born in S. Korea and found on the street. She was brought to an orphanage in Seoul and adopted to the United States. She substitute teaches grades K-12 for the Portland Public School District. She is also a chef and a mother. She writes poetry, fiction, and is currently working on a memoir. Her first publication is titled “Cramped Uptown,” due for release in November, 2011.

Diana Salier is a musician and person who writes. Her first chapbook WIKIPEDIA SAYS IT WILL PASS was released on Deadly Chaps Press in September 2011. She's a graduate of NYU's creative writing program, and her work has appeared or is forthoming in Every Day Genius, Nap Magazine, Red Lightbulbs, 3:AM Magazine, Housefire, and Kill Author, among other places. She's currently working on a full-length collection called Letters From Robots. She grew up in a house in Los Angeles and now lives in an apartment in San Francisco. She is wearing striped pajamas.

Stan Gentle, the man behind Wolf in the Dreamcatcher, claims to be the failed commercial copywriter who got tired of trying to make a difference. He now busies himself composing one-minute songs about the mysterious abduction of poop, lost to the ages Elvis movies, and what he calls The Vegan Betrayal. The songs are at once anthem and corrosive to the synapses, a mix of mostly English words and a pretty convincing synthesizer. Recently, WITDC has garnered critical acclaim on websites like Friendster and publications like Light Metal Age. Live shows have been called “gamey and raw”, prompting tastemakers like Norma Lyon to give a nod. “It’s more a new trope than a gimmick. It might even be a meme. Anyway, it doesn’t suck.”

Tuesday October 25th: Robert Alan Wendeborn, Karen Wood Hepner, and musical guest Special Head!

2011-10-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Beat-boxing (!), throat singing (!), rad short poems (!), Lord of the Rings (!). Doors open at 7:30, music starts at 8, and plenty of deliverance:

Robert Alan Wendeborn is the editor of Extended Play, a short magazine of long literature and writes for Uncanny Valley, a literature and pop-culture blog/magazine/press. He has had poems and reviews published in PANK, > kill author, and The Collagist. Most recently, he has been featured in the Portland Mercury blog for his Lord of the Rings themed haiku, "Legolas, rub me/on my soft Baggins with your/long Bombadildo." If you want to know more about him, or his writing, you should give him a thorough googling.

Karen Wood Hepner writes songs, poems, and marketing blurbs. Mostly her poems are very short because she is always short on time. But it turns out short poems are the raddest kind! She is also raising teenage boys and has that marketing blurb job. She's a pretty busy lady.

Special Head is a one man band from Tucson Arizona. Special Head performs live looping of throat singing, beat boxing, bass, xylophone, pan flute. Then he sings or raps comedic lyrics over the beats and melodies he has created. Some of his songs are serious and tackle issues of global consciousness. Others are simply hilarious.

Tuesday September 27th: Maryrose Larkin, Amanda Huckins, and musical guest Animal Eyes

2011-09-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Two poets and a band. That's right: we give you continuity, structure, and (most importantly) heuristicality. Within this format you will get two women of discrete topology, and a band in temporal flux. Come on--let's compare our own exciting lives with the exciting life we all create at Kidnap at 7:30.

Maryrose Larkin lives in Portland, Ore. where she works as a donor researcher. She is the author of Inverse (nine muses books, 2006), Whimsy Daybook 2007 (FLASH+CARD, 2006), The Book of Ocean (i.e. press, 2007), DARC (FLASH+CARD, 2009), The Name of this Intersection is Frost (Shearsman Books, 2010), and Marrowing (Airfoil, 2011).
Maryrose is one of the organizers of Spare Room, a Portland-based writing collective, and is co-editor, with Sarah Mangold, of FLASH+CARD, a chapbook and ephemera poetry press. She is currently working on "Twenty Questions for Five Masters" a play for Language Master and voice.
http://peepshowpoetry.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-post_29.html
http://www.littleredleaves.com/LRL4/4home.html
http://www.notellmotel.org/poem_single.php?id=609_0_1_0

Amanda Huckins is a poet who lives partially plunged into the ground of Portland, Oregon. Another poet said of her: "I feel like [Amanda is] the Hubble telescope and some, like, space rock flew into [her] f*cking up all [her] sensors but uhh, [she is] still collecting data and the data is damaged in such a way that it is actually much more interesting and uhh you know, useful than the previous data but it's also difficult to read/understand". It may sound like she’s mentally incapacitated, but she most likely is not. Either way, she letterpressed and sewed together a chapbook called Contorted Stone, and she regularly engages in passive and/or immediate collaborations using Google Docs.

Animal Eyes is a Portland, Oregon band. They’re in the process of recording their first album. There are songs about what it’s like to be leaving home at the beginning of a new century, only a few years before the world is supposed to end, about growing older and realizing how important it is to learn from our collective past, to have a collective past, to have family, and about living in cycles with the earth; to be born, to live, and to rest in the ground when we’re done.
www.animaleyesband.com

Tuesday August 30th: Anis Mojgani, Riley Michael Parker, and musical guest Curious Hands

2011-08-23T23:18:00.001-07:00

Happy August everyone! This Tuesday is your chance to get your idea of language messed up and all hot and bothered. This is good for you. The alpha state of your brain will thank you the next day while trying to brainstorm at work. Plus, it's proven that entering this state induces relaxation and healing. Sound good? Good. Because, Anis Mojgani and Riley Michael Parker are ready to do this for you.
Come at 7:30 to mingle and pitch in to the drink fund if you would like to partake!

A former resident of Portland’s Writers-In-The-Schools program, Anis Mojgani is both a two-time national poetry slam and an international poetry slam champion. He is the author of two poetry collections: Over the Anvil We Stretch, and The Feather Room, which was recently nominated for the National Book Award. His work has appeared in Rattle, The Legendary, Radius, as well as on HBO and NPR. Originally from New Orleans, Anis currently lives with his wife in a small house on the Eastside of Austin TX.
thepianofarm.com

Riley Michael Parker is the head editor at HOUSEFIRE, publisher of NOUNS OF ASSEMBLAGE. He wrote OUR BELOVED 26TH, with a new novel out October called A PLAGUE OF WOLVES AND WOMEN, dresses all in black white and red, self-proclamating "fucks like a champ", owns a cat, directed JUNIOR PROM (short film), lived in Las Vegas, lived in Oklahoma, never went to college, owns a coffin, has never been to Mexico.

music! music! music!
http://www.bananastandmedia.com/releases/album/curious_hands_live_from_the_banana_stand

Kidnap Especial: Monday, August 15th in Director Park: Emily Kendal Frey, Ethan Saul Bull, & James Gendron

2011-08-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

If Not For Kidnap, in coordination with Director Park and Multnomah Arts Center Literary Arts Program, presents an out-of-doors performance of poesy, exactly perfect for your summer inclinations.

PLEASE NOTE: This does not take place at Kidnap House. Rather, at Director Park downtown!

This next MONDAY, we have for you:

Ethan Saul Bull - Author of Inside Narratives, revolutionary, and master of the human heart.

Emily Kendal Frey - Author of The Grief Performance, Frances, The New Planet, & Airport, shaman, and all-around word reciter exciter.

James Gendron - Author of Money Poems, kickboxing champion, and regular boxing champion.

The event is free, and afterwards you may play in the fountain.

It may be chilly, because this is summer in Portland.

[Special props go to David Abel, who coordinates the DPR series, Alicia and Spencer at Director Park, and Michael Walsh at MAC, for making the readings possible]

[Also, the following Monday (8/22) same time same place, hear Robert Mittenthal from Seattle, Donato Mancini from Vancouver BC, and Louis Cabri from Ottawa.]

Tuesday, July 26th: Lindsay Hill, Paul Longo, and musical guest Gratillium

2011-07-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

If you show up at 7:30 Tuesday night to If Not For Kidnap you will hear BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, BEAUTIFUL POETRY, and see BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. Plus, FEEL BEAUTIFUL by being part of aural illustration.

There is a donation jar to help the readers out, and provide you with delicious things. The donation jar also accepts delicious things. All are welcome--come and say "hi"!

Lindsay Hill was born in San Francisco and is a graduate of Bard College. His most recently published books are: The Empty Quarter and Contango (both from Singing Horse Press, San Diego). Recent work has appeared in Peaches & Bats, New American Writing, and Peep/Show poetry online: peepshowpoetry.blogspot.com/. Lindsay lives in
Portland with his wife, the painter Nita Hill.

Paul Longo lives in Portland, where he’s learning to say “I got it all in the world,” and to keep plants alive. At work he develops medical devices that stop lethal bleeding. After work he and his friends are collaborating on the perfect compliment. He has degrees in poetry and engineering, and was once co-editor of the Sonora Review. His poems have appeared in Best New Poets and a few other places.

Gratitillium was formed in 2008 by Portland folk artist Nick Caceres. After recording makeshift songs on just his macbook with a built in mic, Caceres released this 'creation' as a full length debut under the name Gratitillium Vol 1, on local indie favorite Tender Loving Empire records. A band was etched around the initial album, and after a series of local shows at venues from the Green House to the Doug Fir and everything in between, Gratitillium was ready to hit the road in 2010 on a west coast tour, after releasing the EP/middle album, of full band versions of six songs off of the initial full length. The album was titled Wild Alive, Vol 1.5 and was a self release, with a release show held at the Holocene with guests Pancake Breakfast and Tiger House in april 2010.
Gratitillium then toured the west coast in early fall, 2010, playing with bands/friends such as:
The Hosannas
Yeah Great Fine
Jared Mees and the Grown Children
The Walkmen
Monarques
Fa Fa Fa
and many more talented acts...

Tuesday, June28th: Matthew Klane, Lisa Ciccarello, and Drew Grow

2011-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Time again for KIDNAP!

Hello! Come 'round 'round 7:33 this next Tuesday for an all-new all-nude review! Poet Matthew Klane is visiting our lovely city, and we have Lisa Ciccarello, Drew Grow, and you all to welcome him! Please wear clothes!

Will you bring some beer to share or some cash for the donation jar? Want to buy a book by someone in the room? Want to hawk yours? Please make sure to introduce yourselves to people until you're sure we've all met!

Matthew Klane is editor and co-founder of Flim Forum Press. His book is B_____ Meditations (Stockport Flats, 2008). Recent work can be found in Taiga, muthafucka, Harp & Altar, and Word For/Word. He currently lives and writes in Iowa City.

Lisa Ciccarello is the author of two chapbooks: At night (Scantily Clad Press, 2009) & At night, the dead (Blood Pudding Press, 2009). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Glitterpony, elimae, Anti-, Poor Claudia, Saltgrass, H_NGM_N & Corduroy Mtn., among others. Her [stunning] photography can be found at like been hounding me how you can't imagine and her blog Punching Little Birds in the Face has recently been updated with a early summer mixtape.

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Across the globe, there are hundreds of young men and women who have taken up acoustic guitars, inspired by the grand folk and country tradition, and set about put their sleeve-worn hearts into musical form. But the result is often feather light and wispy and all too easily forgotten amid the din of the modern age.

Not so with the music of Drew Grow and the Pastors Wives.

The music on the band's self-titled LP (released on their own Amigo/Amiga label) shares the influence of many current indie artists, but carries with much more meat and gristle to chew on. It feels like it was molded after a long life of ups and downs, all set a soundtrack of the curlicued songwriting of Bob Dylan, the drowsy despair of Bill Callahan/Smog, and a thick stack of dusty Motown and Stax 45s.

Tuesday, May 31st: Matty Byloos, Carrie Seitzinger, & tunes by Timmy Straw

2011-05-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Kidnap in the Spring (forreal!!)

Please join us around 7:30 pm on May 31st for delight.

Portland culture warriors Matty Byloos and Carrie Seitzinger team up with Timmy Straw (whose music would give Mazzy Star the chills) to bring you this delight.

As always, everyone is welcome! We'll have some beer on hand, but we rely on y'all to help keep people hydrated through the end of the evening. Donations of cash, beer, wine, food, etc. are fantastic, and please bring things to sell, promote, or proselytize.

Matty Byloos's first collection of short stories, Don't Smell the Floss, was published in 2009 by Write Bloody Books. His work has been published on or in: We Who Are About to Die, The Nervous Breakdown, The Fanzine, Orion Magazine, Pop Serial, Sparkle and Blink, The Portland Review, Everyday Genius, Housefire, among others. He is the editor and publisher of Smalldoggies Magazine, and co-hosts (along with Carrie Seitzinger) the Smalldoggies Reading Series in Portland, OR, where he lives and works.

Carrie Seitzinger has been featured at poetry venues since 2003. Her first book of poetry, The Dots Don’t Connect, was self-published in 2004. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is the Poetry Editor for Smalldoggies Magazine and co-hosts the Smalldoggies Reading Series PDX, a monthly reading series featuring both writers and musicians. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poor Claudia,Housefire, Smalldoggies Magazine, Sparkle and Blink, The Portland Review, Mosaic, Cobalt Poets, and have been recorded for podcasts.

Timmy Straw lived for a long time in East Los Angeles, was born in Oregon, and was brought up by the music of Bela Bartok, Doc Watson, Frederic Chopin, Nirvana, Goodie Mob, Biggie Smalls, church hymns, Sam Cooke, Nine Inch Nails and Lil Wayne. She’s toured around America and Europe with Emily Wells, Carla Bozulich, and most recently with The Nite Kite Revival (Buddy Wakefield, Derrick Brown and Anis Mojgani). Learn more about Timmy Straw and sample music on MySpace Music now.

Tuesday April 26th: Literary Mixtape Two Year Anniversary, with musical guest Damon Boucher!

2011-04-23T10:49:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our grand night of INFK’s TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY celebration!

Tuesday night we’ll be DJing the literary cannon for you. Both Donald and Jamalieh have composed astonishing fragments of literary genius from far to near, old to new. So come and sit on our chairs, lie on our couches, languish in the greatest stories ever told. Our musical guest, Damon Boucher, will join us in the usual two-part fashion (impromptu dance post-party always welcome). Remember to bring whatever you want to eat or drink. Celebration.

Just in case you don't know: Donald and Jamalieh co-founded If Not For Kidnap poetry series. They are both professors of English. Also, each of their first manuscripts are "almost finished".

Donald Dunbar vive en la casa a donde vasa venir. El es muy alto y rubio y muy poderoso. Escucha a sus palabras tranquilas para estar comodo. Puedes tocar al espalda de el, pero cuesta diez dolares. El no sabe como hablar en espanol, pero tu sabes tambien. Esta es una mentira. Si, el sabe como hablar en espanol. No, esta es una mentira.

Jamalieh Haley has been reading, and, thus, accumulating a mix of literature to read to you since she was three. She also reads professionally to people through a microphone, pre-amp, and channeled through various compressors. Through this medium she is the voice of several champion cheer-leading teams, including the California All Stars, for which she says ridiculous phrases like “Are you ready? Well buckle up. This will be the ride of a lifetime” and “You better duck—these bullets are flying high”. She can also train your horse while reciting Yeates.

Damon Boucher says, "Fuck it. You'll love my music. That said, I just finished my first LP, Superfag. You'll listen to it and from then on your wet dreams will be haunted with me. That's what you need to know about me." http://damonboucher.bandcamp.com/

There you have it, folks. All are welcome. We are very friendly. Please bring a few dollars to contribute to the donation jar to help cover our costs of beverages. Thanks!

J & D

Tuesday, March 29th: A. Minetta Gould & Amber Nelson, w/music by The Tumblers Acoustic

2011-03-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

New study: Kidnap helps you forget Winter.
This just in: Kidnap is happening in March.
Video: Kidnap lies to you about video.

Please join us Tuesday, March 29th at 7:30 pm for the perfect evening! Poets Amber Nelson (Seattle) and A. Minetta Gould (Boise) stop by on their West Coast Adventure to read to us their excellent words, and local faves The Tumblers loan out two of their number to serenade us with dulcet tones.

As always, everyone is welcome. Please bring friends, drinks to share, flyers to hand out, books and ephemera to sell, and/or cash for the donation jar. Or just bring your face, because we all like looking at it!

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AMBER NELSON lives in Seattle where she spends copious amounts of time watching Kung Fu. She is the co-founder and poetry editor of alice blue. Her second chapbook, Diary of When Being With Friends Feels Like Watching TV, is available from Slash Pine Press.

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A. MINETTA GOULD was raised in the mittens by a beautician. She edits the online journal Lonesome Fowl and is the Associate Editor for Black Ocean. She has recent work published in Columbia Poetry Review, Unsaid, and New Orleans Review. Another chapbook, Dutch Baby Combo and The Boys are Talking about Restless at Five Points, will be available from Spooky Girlfriend Press.

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TYLER GASTON and DEAN GORMAN are 2/5 of The Tumblers, Portland's infamous and beloved country outfit. They are the band's primary songwriters and are looking forward to their first-ever acoustic show. Tyler promises to dress appropriately this time...

Tuesday February 22nd: Zachary Scott Hamilton, David Cooke, and musical guest Siren and the Sea

2011-02-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

Like always, If Not For Kidnap is here for you with two new poets you probably will want to get to know, and music that will get to know you. (Isn't that what everybody wants?) Bring drink to share, or maybe throw some money in for beer. Bring extra cash you've got laying around in case anyone's hawking anything. Bring something to hawk. Or just show up with your lovely self.

Zachary Scott Hamilton is the author of Fourteen Zines, including HAIR LAND which won the Zine of the month award on WWW.IPRC.org. He lives in a condemned house on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon with his Cat, Spekter who he writes poems to.
Zachary has published work in these places: Sein und werden (being and becoming), Karawane (or the temporary death of the brutist), Otiliths (a journal of many e-things) Ignavia Press (issue 4.1), And The batShat E-zine) (issue 1// pg 8.)

DAVID COOKE was raised Catholic in Oakland, California, and now lives in Portland, Oregon. His debut poem Edges won the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize. His work appears in Flatmancrooked, Hunger Mountain, A River & Sound Review, Heavy Hands Ink and in performances at the Blackbird Wine Shop, The Press Club, Show and Tell Gallery, Stonehenge Studio, and KBOO’s Talking Earth. He is also known as The Lawn Guy throughout Portland and Lake Oswego for his lawn maintenance business. Much of his current work is included in his forthcoming chapbook, Discretion.

Siren and the Sea is an ensemble that currently consists of three musicians—Manny Stewart on accordion, Cristina Cano vocals, guitar and keyboard, and Scott Belleri on violin. Their influences are diverse, including klezmer, show tunes, indie and folk. They are BEAUTIFUL!

See you at 7:30!

Tuesday January 25th: Sam Lohmann, Allison Cobb, and musician Jeff Diteman

2011-01-19T12:02:00.000-08:00

Yes! we are still intending to kidnap you and feed you beautiful, fresh, organic, and local word/sound cuisine. The menu? So glad you asked (do not expect the reading to be as ridiculous as this intro to your invite):

Sam Freaking Lohmann. Allison Freaking Cobb. Experimental/linguistical/classical cellist Jeff Freaking Diteman.

Sam Lohmann lives in Portland, edits the poetry fanzine "Peaches and Bats," co-edits Airfoil Chapbooks with David Abel, and is one of the organizers of the Spare Room reading series. His most recent chapbook is "Onlooking."
Look at links! www.peachbats.blogspot.com &/or www.airfoilchapbooks.blogspot.com

Allison Cobb is the author of Born2 (Chax Press, 2004) about her hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Green-Wood (Factory School, 2010) about a famous nineteenth-century cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Her work combines history, personal narrative, and poetry to address issues of landscape, politics, and ecology. She was a 2009 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow and received a 2011 Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission. She worked for many years for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York City. She now works for an energy conservation nonprofit in Portland, Oregon. allisoncobb.net

Jeff Diteman is an armchair linguist, a lackadaisical polymath and a closeted bumpkin. When he is not playing the cello, he paints in oils, does technical translations and goes swimming.

Please come and sit on our couches and drink our wine and breathe our air! Share and share alike, bring some beer to share or other things. It's delicious. We want you. Come at 7:30! We will introduce ourselves!

Kidnap returns in January!

2010-12-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

Please don't come to it before then!

xo,

J&D

Tuesday, November 30th: Drew Swenhaugen, Marshall Walker Lee, with musical guest Guidance Counselor

2010-11-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Lordy, we are thankful for these sounds! Listen, lovers: The Poor Claudia boys are here to read to you poetry and fiction, Guidance Counselor is here to sing you songs, and, as always, you will bring the atmosphere. Check this out:

Guidance Counselor's total diy approach to making music is straight punk rock, but the dance jams they pump out would have any disco jumping. And it's much more than just slammin' beats; the songs are written with the type of care rarely shown in western dance music. In a genre littered with throw-away lyrics, Ian can spend weeks penning a song.

Drew and Marshall's lives appear to be about making, reading, writing, and loving. Their reading will find these truths to be self-evident.

Doors open at 7:30. Music starts at 8. Please drop by if you want to be insanely thankful. Don't forget to bring a dollar or two to donate for the drinks and talent! If you are shy, I will do my best to make you forget that and feel welcomed.

Tuesday, October 26th: Ethan Saul Bull, Paul Maziar, and music by Jessie Aron

2010-10-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Kidnap returns, 60% more Autumn that last time!

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Ethan Saul Bull lives and, thankfully, works in Portland, Oregon. He has graduated from college a couple of times--most recently from Arizona. His first book, entitled Inside Narratives, came out from BlazeVOX Books in 2010 and his work has appeared in several journals including Exquisite Corpse, EOAGH, Octopus Magazine, The Benefactor, and others. He feels close to the sea at the moment and has been said to love love, though he's not entirely sure what that means.

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Paul G. Maziar is a writer & poet, and works as a bell-hop. Born in the desert of Southern Nevada, he lived in Los Angeles, New York New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and has found his new home in Portland OR. His first book was published in 2008, titled WHAT IT IS: WHAT IT IS. It is a collaborative work, consisting of experimental prose and the typographic & photographic treatments of his friend, the artist Matt Maust. Paul self-published his first chapbook of poems, Last Light of Day, which sold quickly and is now being put out as a full-length collection, by Publication Studio in Portland Or. He's been curating a monthly reading series in Portland, and is currently involved in an ongoing workshop taught by poet Hoa Nguyen. He writes and edits a poetry blog called Don’t Fog the Feelers.

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Jessie Aron goes to culinary school, and that's the main thing. She also plays music and sings in Ocean Age, which is, like, electronic chamber music with natural sounds. And then sometimes she plays quiet girlish folk music by herself or with other girls.

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As always, doors open at 7:30, performances begin just past 8. Please bring food or drink to share, a dollar or two for our donation jar, a tenner for buying stuff from the various book/art/CD offerings, flyers for upcoming events and readings, and any person you think is a cool person. Also, don’t be shy! Our event is the kind of event that only attracts nice people!

Tuesday September 28th: Jeramiah Gould, A Minetta Gould, and Debrah Morkun!

2010-09-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Folks, get ready to swoon. We have three poets from across the nation who will lull you into imagination. Jeramiah Gould, his long lost sister A Minetta Gould, and Debrah Morkun.

Since the day he was born, J. Schaffer Gould has been getting bigger. He has a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and is Editorial Assistant for Rope-A-Dope Press in South Boston (watch out, they make beautiful things!). He is currently filling out his entire shape in Exeter, NH.

A. Minetta Gould was raised in the mittens by a beautician. She's since transplanted herself to the West where she worries herself with rust, the epic, and pagination. A. is the Associate Editor for Black Ocean & edits the online journal Lonesome Fowl.

Debrah Morkun's first book of poetry, Projection Machine, was published in April 2010 by BlazeVox Books. She lives in Philadelphia, where she writes and curates events for the wonderful poetry community with The New Philadelphia Poets (www.newphiladelphiapoets.com). You can visit Debrah at www.debrahmorkun.com .

Doors open at 7:30. Please drop by if you want to be insanely happy, or even moderately delighted by words. Don't forget to bring a dollar or two to donate for the drinks and talent! If you are shy, I will do my best to make you forget that and feel welcomed.

Thanks! J & D

Tuesday August 31st: Kaia Sand, Margaret Malone, and Musicial guest Karen Wood Hepner

2010-08-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Come visit, listen, drink, and prosper at If Not For Kidnap this month! We have three local artists: one poet, one fiction writer, and one musician. These are three sweet, beautiful, talented, and dark-haired women, and you're going to want to see them.

Margaret Malone’s writing has appeared in The Missouri Review, Swink, The Wordstock Ten Anthology, latimes.com and elsewhere, and in January she was awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction from Literary Arts. She is currently at work on a memoir co-written with her husband, and a collection of stories.

Kaia Sand's book, Remember to Wave, was just released by Tinfish Press. This collection investigates political geography in Portland, Oregon, which takes the form of a poetry walk. She is also the author of a poetry collection, interval (Edge Books 2004), and co-author with Jules Boykoff of Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry and Public Space (Palm Press 2008). Sand has created several chapbooks through the Dusie Kollektiv, which also published her wee book, lotto. Her poems comprise the text of two books in Jim Dine's Hot Dreams series (Steidl Editions 2008). Supported by a Regional Arts and Culture Council project grant, she is currently working on Shell Games, a multi-media poetry project investigating foreclosures and the uneven distribution of shelter.

Karen Wood Hepner plays music. And sometimes she writes the music she plays. Sometimes she ropes her kids into these antics. It's a nice break from the headiness of poetry. She has an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College and you may remember her reading poems at the inaugural INFK.

It'll be an evening of sirens. Doors open at 7:30. Please drop by if you have the chance. Don't forget to bring a dollar or two to donate for the drinks and talent!

Tuesday July 27th: RODNEY KOENEKE, and ERIK FLORES, with musician DAVE BOW and artist CHEYENNE GLASGOW

2010-07-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

July brings you a pretty sweet line up, Kidnap lovers. Poet Rodney Koeneke and fictioneer Erik Flores. You will also be serenaded by Dave Bow, who I happen to think is a pretty skilled musician (not to mention his superb writing skills). There will also be photographs up by Cheyenne Glasgow. Come hear! Come see!

RODNEY KOENEKE is author of the poetry collections Musee Mechanique and Rouge State. Rules for Drinking Forties, a chapbook, appeared from Cy Press last year; another, Names of the Hits (of Diane Warren), appears from OMG Press this year. His work has been anthologized in Bay Poetics and in Flarf: An Anthology of Flarf, forthcoming this fall. He's read and performed at The Poetry Center, the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, the de Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Small Press Traffic, the Pacific Film Archive, The Smell, and the Bowery Poetry Club, among others. He lives in Portland, OR where he helps curate the Tangent Reading Series and blogs about poetry at Modern Americans: www.modampo.blogspot.com

Erik Flores was born in San Francisco, California. He earned his MFA at the Queens College Writers Workshop and resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter. His new book, From the Neck Up, recently came out on Eldrecko Press. He also performs weddings.

Take a sneak peek at Cheyennes stuff here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowboy_montgomery/sets/72157623241306997/

Please drop by if you have the chance. Don't forget to bring a dollar or two to donate for the drinks and talent!

Tuesday June 29th: Joe Hall, and Rauan Klassnik, with musical guest Sewblue

2010-06-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

Two poets from out of town, both with books out on Black Ocean! These two guys are personal favorites of mine. This is the true way to begin summer! Don't regret not beginning summer. Read on:

Joe Hall is the founder of the Washington, DC reading series Cheryl’s Gone. A 2007-2008 George Mason University Thesis Fellow, his work has appeared in Versal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Handsome, Cimmaron Review, among others, and his reviews appear frequently in Phoebe and The Celadon Review. Joe lives with his partner Cheryl wherever they go. Check out his new book on Black Ocean http://www.blackocean.org/pigafetta-is-my-wife/.

Rauan Klassnik book "Holy Land" was released from Black Ocean in April 2008. He spends most of his time in Mexico.

Sewblue was a singer-songwriter project for many years until 2009 when it developed into a quartet with strings and marimba and the occasional drumbeat. It maintains a playful and lyrical focus on the bittersweet, covering a range of sub-genres in the indie/folk/pop realm. Chelsea likes to call it gypsy jazz but she's unsure of the actual implication in saying such things.

As always, everyone is welcome. Start time is 7:30. We will start on time! Some beer provided, but please bring really anything to share--drinks, food, fliers, business cards, etc., money for our donation, etc.--and don't be shy about introducing yourself.

Thanks for your support, and see you soon.

J & D

Tuesday, May 25th: W. Vandoren Wheeler, Jamondria Harris, and Jacob Levine, with music by Brownish Black

2010-05-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

You guys! Hey you guys, come see poets and a band!

For free!

Because seriously: it's going to be fantastic!

When: Tuesday, May 25th at 7:30 (though we won't start until just after eight)
Where: 3968 SE Mall St., upper floors
As always, bring anyone you like and if you're up to it, bring something to share! Like beer, food, fliers, money, whatever, I think polaroids would be cool... And don't be shy about saying hi to people you don't know!

*

W. Vandoren Wheeler was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His poems have appeared in Swink, H_ngM_n, Forklift, and Bat City Review, among others. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson, and served for two years as the editor of Marylhurst University’s M Review. He teaches composition, creative writing, and literature at Portland Community College.

*

Jamondria Harris is a poet living in portland oregon. She is interested in fluidity, bliss and following lines of flight into poetry.Her work has appeared in The Nightbomb Review #1 and 2 and she will have a chapbook out from Nightbomb Press later this year.

*

Jake Levine got an MFA in poetry at the University of Arizona, where he got some cash for a Warnock Fellowship, Hattie Locket Prize, Intro Awards, and Foundation Award for his poesy. He is also an instructor of poetry and composition at the University of Arizona and won the Johnnie Raye Harper teaching award, which he also got funds from. He said he’d use the funds for writing and then spent them on some other shit, shit that either detracted or distracted from writing. He is Editor-In-Chief of Sonora Review, on the board of directors at POG (poetry in action), on the Tucson Festival Of Books Poetry Committee, is the founder and curator of The Aural Pleasure Party and Poetry Fuckfest reading series, and is an editor at SPORK. He lives and loves Tucson, AZ. His poetry has appeared in Stretching Panties, forthcoming in Retort and EOAGH, has a current / being printed chapbook The Threshold of Erasure from Sporkpress, which they took before they invited him to edit / bind shit. He stabs himself with binding needles often. He does not give a fuck, or he does give a fuck. Depends on sweat. Sweat depends on heat. He does not wear Depends. He is only just young. He is not just.

*

Portland based quartet Brownish Black draws heavily from 60's, 70's soul and rock music blended with modern garage sounds. With their offerings to the generations, this versatile mix of musicians find comfort in any form of venue, from big stages to living rooms.

Tuesday, April 27th: Donald Dunbar, Jamalieh Haley, and musical guest Paschal Coeur

2010-04-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary, If Not For Kidnap Audience!

This Tuesday we will be celebrating 1 year of a series of fantastic readers accompanied by fantastic listeners.

We hope you will join us Tuesday for a reading by Donald Dunbar and Jamalieh Haley, with music by Paschal Coeur, and perhaps even a surprise spawn/guest from our first reading ever!

Donald Dunbar lives in the house you will be coming to. He published a bunch of poems last year. He has figured out the easy way to make poems.

Jamalieh writes poems, lectures, maps, and grading comments. She does this with keyboard, pen, wire, soldering iron, or wax. She is very interested in you, but very shy. So make the first move.

Paschal Coeur will have a special treat for us. The treat will definitely be music. Like this: www.paschalcoeur.com free tracks: www.jamesonwilliams.com/paschalcoeur. If I know my French, their name has something to do with the heart. And probably their music, too!

As always, everyone is welcome. Start time is 7:30, which means be there by 8! You don't want to miss this one. Some beer provided, but please bring really anything to share--drinks, food (I'm bringing brownies!), fliers, business cards, etc., money for our donation, etc.--and don't be shy about introducing yourself.

Thanks for your support, and see you soon.

J & D

Tuesday, March 30th: David Abel, Dean Gorman, and Narwal Creative Music Ensemble

2010-03-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Oh my god! Check it out! INFK once again! All-local, all-organic!

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David Abel is a poet, interdisciplinary artist, bookdealer, and freelance editor. He is one of the founding organizers of the Spare Room reading series, and copublisher (with Sam Lohmann) of airfoil chapbooks. He moved to Portland in 1997, after tenures in New York and New Mexico. His recent publications include the chapbook Commonly (airfoil) and the artist's book While You Were In (with Anna and Leo Daedalus; disposable books); last month he performed at the Gerding Armory Theater as part of Blum Blum Shub Sound Poetry Coincidence, interpreting the 72-foot-long graphic score "The Metaphysics of Notation" by Mark Applebaum (video excerpt online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac4Sa-5dp9k).

*

Dean lives in Portland, Oregon, where he plays in the bands Sweet William's Ghost and The Tumblers. His poems have appeared in Forklift; Ohio, among other places. He is co-founder and former co-editor of Pilot Books and Magazine.

here are some links for fun

http://www.inknode.com/people/deangorman
www.myspace.com/sweetwilliamsghost
www.myspace.com/thetumblers

*

Narwal Creative Music Ensemble

New music, improvised music. Cracked pencil lead on score paper mixes with spontaneous composition to present sounds organized in unfamiliar ways. Narwal values the bizarre, under appreciated, the experimental and the esoteric. We find inspiration in the new (Terry Riley, Ruth Crawford Seeger, George Crumb), the hip (Henry Threadgill, John Zorn, William Basinski), and the crusty (Gregorian chant, Bach). What you hear now is a freeze frame of forward movement- a single image from our picture show. We're not quite sure how the picture show ends. Also, if anybody can explain the Drake or Lady Gaga music videos to us, that would be swell.

*

Everyone is welcome. We "begin" at 7:30 which means that's about when you want to be showing up, but we know you, you're late to everything! Some beer provided, but please bring really anything to share--drinks, food, fliers, business cards, etc., money for our donation jar, etc.--and don't be shy about introducing yourself.

See you then--

Tuesday, February 23rd at 7:30, Zach Schomburg and Emily Frey collaboration, Karyna McGlynn, with musical guest Oh!

2010-02-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

WHAT THE HECK! We have an amazing line up for you guys this month:

1.
Emily Kendal Frey and Zachary Schomburg will be reading from their new collaboration Team Sad.
Zachary Schomburg is the author of Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009) and The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007) and several chapbooks including, most recently, collaborative work with Emily Kendal Frey which includes Team Sad (Ciematheque Press 2010). A DVD collection of his poem films, Little Blind Thing, was just released by Poor Claudia. He co-edits Octopus Books and Octopus Magazine. He teaches at Portland Community College and Portland State University.

Emily Kendal Frey is the author of AIRPORT (Blue Hour, 2009) and THE NEW PLANET (Mindshare, forthcoming). Collaborative work with Zachary Schomburg includes TEAM SAD (Cinematheque 2010), FEELINGS USING WOLVES (Small Fires, forthcoming) and OK, GOODNIGHT (Future Tense Publishing, forthcoming). She teaches at Portland Community College.

Karyna McGlynn’s first book, I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl, won the 2008 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry from Sarabande Books. She is the author of several chapbooks including Alabama Steve and the forthcoming collaboration Small Shrines (Cinematheque Press, 2010). Her poems have appeared in Fence, Octopus, Denver Quarterly, Columbia Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, Lumberyard and Forklift, Ohio. Karyna was recently the Claridge Writer-in-Residence at Illinois College. She currently teaches at Concordia University and edits L⁴: The Journal of the New American Epigram with Adam Theriault in Austin, TX. Read more at her mildly outdated website: karynamcglynn.com.

3. Musical guest Oh is FANTASTIC. Not only is she a delight to look at, but her music is hauntingly charming. OH is currently finishing up a demo and going on a short tour to New York and Europe. Her music has been described as “pop rocks in slow motion”, a description we like very much. She plays a drum machine, a couple toy keyboards and sings. Watch kick ass videos and then come see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLgdh0QeuME and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_xSTgthnZU.

When: Tuesday, February 23th at 7:30
Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Upper Floors

As always, everyone is welcome. You'll find friendly listeners with bottles of wine. If you like, bring something to eat, drink, and share; any donations accepted! Bring something to put on the merchandise table.

See you Tuesday!

J &D

KIDNAP RETURNS IN FEBRUARY

2010-01-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

INFK: Giving you all time to get over your seasonal affective disorder

xo-

Tuesday, November 24th at 7:30 or so: David Wolach, Jen Coleman, Ashley D'Avignon Goodwin and Kenny Anderson

2009-11-15T00:29:00.000-08:00

Who: poets David Wolach and Jen Coleman, visual artist Ashley d'Avignon Goodwin and musician Kenny Anderson
When: Tuesday, November 24th at 7:30
Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Upper Floors
Etc.: Bring food or drink to share, or maybe throw some money in for beer. Bring extra cash you've got laying around in case anyone's hawking anything. Bring something to hawk. Or just show up with your lovely self.

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David Wolach is professor of text arts, poetics, and new media at The Evergreen State College, and visiting professor in Bard College’s Workshop In Language & Thinking. He is the author of several books, most recently Occultations (Black Radish Books, forth. 2010), Prefab Eulogies Vol. 1: Nothings Houses (BlazeVox, forth. 2010), Hospitalogy (Scantily Clad Press, forth. 2009-10), Acts of Art/Works of Violence (SSLA/Univ. of Sydney), and book alter(ed) (Ungovernable Press, 2009). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, most recently 5_Trope, No Tell Motel, XPoetics, Dusie, Little Red Leaves, and The BlueFifth Review. Recipient of grants from the Washington Arts Council and the Olympia Fund for Diversity in the Arts, Wolach’s work is often site specific and uses multiple media. His work has been performed at venues such as The Buffalo Poetics Series, The Stain of Poetry Series, The American Cybernetics Conference, and EconVergence. Wolach is also a member of Nonsite Collective, and founding editor of Wheelhouse Magazine & Press, a quarterly journal and chapbook series dedicated to radical text arts, poetics, and politics, which curates the yearly series PRESS Series & Conference in collaboration with The Evergreen State College. For reading dates, essay, calls or Wheelhouse submissions, & other happenings, visit David's blog.

*/

Jen Coleman is a Minnesota poet by way of DC, New York and now Portland. Former co-editor of the literary magazine Pom2 and former co-curator of the DC based “In Your Ear” reading series. Jen also has a chapbook, Propinquity, and her work has appeared in The Tangent, Ixnay, Chain and other splendid journals.

\*

Ashley d'Avignon Goodwin:

The goal I have in mind for this series is to encourage people to call into question their own domestic photo displays. Why this picture? Why this moment? The tendency to preserve "big" events; weddings, graduations, reunions - necessarily implies that the day to day lacks the importance of times such as these. Or at least, those days aren't worth sharing, those days don't contribute to the greater you. What's more is that the images often lie anyway - just because you had 27 of your closest relatives wearing the same colored sweater all smiling for 10 seconds doesn't mean they aren't in a perpetual pissing contest.

You can get a pretty good look at the image someone wants to project by looking at the photos they present. "My family is always this happy. I always look this pretty. Why yes I do play the guitar. My nonchalance alerts you that I am an artist and have no need to smile for you, that would be trite."

The images on display here are all of women who just got arrested for either shoplifting or some other mall misconduct. I believe this to be one of the many missing pieces in the usual photographic illustration of ones life. It's truthful, frightening and embarrassing. And isn't life just one frightening, embarrassing event after another? Is it just me? --But even still, some of them smile as to say "fuck you, I'll be back next week," some of them look like they're going to deck you as soon as you take the cuffs offs - the presentation of oneself is not void here. Is the "fuck you pig" photo any more or less real than the "I'm going to love this woman for the rest of my life" photo? Was seeking the real even my goal? Did I just fail at writing an artist's statement?

*/

Kenny Anderson doesn't understand things. He tries to play the guitar his very best. It takes him over twenty years to write a song. You wouldn't know it to hear one, but it's true. He is very happy. There is a rumor floating around that he doesn't vote. Maybe that's why he never complains.

Tuesday, October 27th at 7:30 pm: Carson Cistulli, James Honzik, and Future Death Toll

2009-10-25T18:43:00.001-07:00

Sooner than you might expect!: Poets Carson Cistulli and James Honzik and special musical guest Future Death Toll all making noise for you for free!

Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Upper Floors
When: Tuesday, October 27 at 7:30 pm

No donation turned away!

***

James Honzik:

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, then studied poetry under John Yau, Bernadette Meyer, and David Trinidad at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, the heart of poetry in NYC, and with Charles Bernstein at the New School.

Out on the West coast I fell into a job as a commercial photographer. In a year I took over 50,000 photos of buildings in cities all over the Pacific Northwest, in rain, in fog, in sun, in shadow, in mist, in summer, and winter.

Now, somehow, my poetry and photography has combined. Lichen, water, stone, corrosion, decay, and the faces of my friends, have become the vocabulary of a visual poetry.

***

Carson Cistulli teaches both at Portland Community College and through the Writers in the Schools program sponsored by Literary Arts. His first book, Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, was published by Casagrande Press. His second book, Winning, is forthcoming from the same press. He lives in Portland.

***

Future Death Toll is an artist collective residing in Portland that produces and manipulates live audio and video. Armed with modular synthesizers, projectors, a drumpad and a blaze orange rotary phone, and uniformed in blaze orange ‘Dannaz and safety vestz. Future Death Toll is a throbbing mess noise that eats technology and shits performance art.

Future Death Toll will perform back alley open-heart surgery on its most enthusiastic patients. The process of rearranging, patching, and modifying audio and video induces intestinal oscillations that could easily jump-start Dr. Frankenstein’s creature.

Tuesday, September 29th: Jesse Lichtenstein, Andrew Michael Roberts, w/music by Tyler Gaston

2009-09-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Kidnap: Back with another one, not entirely dissimilar to the other ones! PDX virtuosos yet again! Who'da thunk it??

Who: Poets Jesse Lichtenstein & Andrew Michael Roberts, Musician Tyler Gaston
Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Upper Floors
When: Tuesday, September 29th at 7:30 pm
How much: Free (donations of money, drinks, food, books, & love accepted; no receipts issued)

Also, once again we'll have a table set up with consumer goods for all your capitalist impulses! Bring stuff you made if you want to sell it!

***

Jesse Lichtenstein is working on his first book of poems, excerpts of which have appeared in the Paris Review, Gulf Coast, Verse, Denver Quarterly, La Petite Zine, and other journals. He also writes journalism and prosy things, some of which have appeared in the New Yorker, Slate, The Economist, n +1, and the anthology Disquiet Please (Random House, 2008). Most of the time he lives in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches poetry, writes screenplays, and helps run the Loggernaut Reading Series.

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Andrew Michael Roberts is the author of something has to happen next, which was awarded the 2008 Iowa Poetry Prize and is a finalist for the 2009 Oregon Book Award. He has written two chapbooks, Dear Wild Abandon, selected for a 2007 PSA National Chapbook Award, and Give Up from Tarpaulin Sky Press (2006). He lives in Portland.

***

Musical guest Tyler Gaston is from Oklahoma. He has been putting words to music for almost ten years, pumping out country ballads of the setting sun and the darkening night with tear-inducing efficiency. Relatively new to Portland, Tyler is settling in to the realities of living in a world class drinking town, humming and strumming through the diviest bars around. He plays in the band The Tumblers and once-upon-a-time musical collaboration with Joshua Beckman on Erasmas Darwin. Experience the lore of this back-woods, ax-wielding, chicken frying, country yodeling, cattle branded, southern gentleman for yourself.

Tuesday, August 25th 19:30: Sarah Bartlett, Mark Salame, w/art by Christopher Pearson

2009-08-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

Surprise! INFK returns!

A poet, a prosist, a painter, seriously, come on. All local and all lovely, all the time.

When: Tuesday, August 25^th at 7:30 pm

Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Upper Floors

All are welcome, donations ($, books, food, drink) welcome too.

Also, we'll have a little table set up in case you're into buying/selling poems and art and other homemade ephemera.

Sarah Bartlett lives in Portland. Her chapbook (co-written with Chris Tonelli), A Mule-Shaped Cloud, was published by horse less press in 2008. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Coconut, Sir!, Sixth Finch, Diagram, and elsewhere. Poems co-written with Emily Kendal Frey have appeared or are forthcoming in New Pony: A horse less Anthology, sub-Lit, Portland Review, Caffeine Destiny, Alice Blue, and Bat City.

Marc Saleme is from Omaha Nebraska, attended the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, but never graduated, began school at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, but quit that too. He is one of the publishers The Benefactor magazine. His work has previously been published in Berlin-based literary journal Bordercrossing-Berlin. He currently resides in Portland.

Christopher Pearson comes from the Great Plains and is a working artist in Portland. He does a lot of painting and has some school history. This show has a lot to do with process-oriented self-portraits. Layers. The new school of figurative painting and portraiture. This work was shown at the Basement Pub a little over a year ago and they were super cool about it.

Monday (!!!), July 27th at 7:30 in the PM: Joel Bettridge & Joseph Mains

2009-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

INFK once again bringing you the freshest locally grown poems!

This month on a very special Monday (not Tuesday) come join us in listening to Joel Bettridge and Joseph Mains read their poems aloud. There is also a pretty good chance we will have a special musical guest.

When: Monday, July 27th at 7:30 pm

Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Apt A

All are welcome, donations totally not turned out.

Also, if you're into selling or buying poems, etc., everyone is invited to bring anything they made, and everyone is invited to bring some extra cash.

Joel Bettridge is the author of two books of poetry, That Abrupt Here (The Cultural Society Press, 2007) and Presocratic Blues (forthcoming from Chax Press). He co-edited, with Eric Selinger, Ronald Johnson: Life and Works (National Poetry Foundation) and his critical study, Reading as Belief: Language Writing, Poetics, Faith is forthcoming from Palgrave in Fall 2009. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of English at Portland State University.

Courtship in the Age of Youtube

Inevitable, the time clock that hangs around in your sinus cavities, the tension of

inhaling and exhaling and checking your inbox, at

a customary stage, not, steady enough, to take your jeans off

not, at ease enough, to refrain from it,

your words as to the vagueness of an end game.

I’ll send you a clip from a popular sketch-comedy television show, and one of a man

who injures his ankle in a gruesome way;

in between I’ll watch a hot girl do something, Saddam hanged until dead, and

trade you one kind of unfreedom for another,

and act toward your border states as if they were the developing world,

but a team of scientists finds a gigantic ring of invisible material left over from

the ancient collision of galaxy clusters; they announce it as this most

convincing evidence for the mysterious stuff called dark matter; but an

online social network popular with teenagers shares with state attorneys

the identities of members who are known sex offenders.

I’ll send you a clip of the gayest weatherman ever,

I’ll send you a clip of Japanese people, and a drunken kitten.

Let me treat you like a sparsely inhabited or virtually unsettled land—

let’s do what robots do.

***&***

Joseph Mains was born in the Sonoran desert and lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Portland. Having taken his MFA in Poetry, he now fries pies for a living. His poems appear in places physical and online.

Cleave

It rains.

The pain is temporary but it fits like the shirt with the hole in the elbow.

Have we all had enough? Yes the mountains are beautiful and

yes we can drive through them without getting out.

I ripped through a breastbone and ribs to get outside

the meaty swaddles and when I woke up I was glad that they were yours.

Tuesday, June 30th 7:30 pm: Lisa Ciccarello & Emily Kendal Frey, w/art by Randell Sims

2009-06-26T02:23:00.000-07:00

This month at KIDNAP!: two fantastic Portland poets, one fantastic Portland painter!

Couple new things:

1) Things on sale! New chapbooks, old issues of journals, ephemera, etcetera! The money will go directly to the artist. Also, if you've got a book or a chapbook or a journal that you made and you'd like to sell it, bring it on by!

2) Donations are still totally welcome, but any money over the amount of what we spend on refreshments will be split between the readers. Be lovely, bring a dollar or three, or bring food / beverages to share!

3) Art! We'll have art hung upon the walls.

So...

Who: Lisa Ciccarello & Emily Kendal Frey with poems, Randell Sims with paintings

Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Apt A

When: Tuesday, June 30th at 7:30 pm

Who is welcome: Everyone

And!

Lisa Ciccarello is the author of two chapbooks: At Night (Scantily Clad Press 2009) & At night, the dead: (Blood Pudding Press 2009). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming from Glitterpony, elimae, Otoliths, Anti-, Saltgrass & Sawbuck, among others. She's currently assistant editor at Scantily Clad Press.

Emily Kendal Frey lives in Portland, Oregon and teaches at Portland Community College. She is the author of AIRPORT (Blue Hour Press, 2009). Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Handsome, Sink Review, Sixth Finch, jubilat, Microfilme and Word For/Word.

Randell Sims it was OK but it is not OK

Tuesday, May 26th 7:30 pm: Zachary Schomburg & James Gendron

2009-05-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

If Not For Kidnap Poetry invites you to an evening with local poets Zachary Schomburg and James Gendron!

Beer and wine provided, perhaps food (if we can scrape together the money)! If you feel like it, bring something to share!

Also, donations totally not turned down!

Don't be shy even if you don't know anybody else coming! We promise everyone is very welcoming and kind and super into meeting new people!

Zachary Schomburg is the author of two books of poems, The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007), and the forthcoming Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009), and some poetry chapbooks, most recently The Pond (Greying Ghost Press) and I Am a Small Boy (Factory Hollow). He co-edits an online poetry magazine, Octopus, and a small press, Octopus Books. He teaches film, literature, and writing at Portland State and Portland Community College.

At INFK Zach will show us poems using video footage from his Olympus snapshot camera. With this manipulated footage, and a combination of text, and music, comes Schomburg's Poem-Film project.

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James Gendron is from the sun. In 1996 he almost died from a cocaine underdose. He votes ironically. For three years, he "lived" in Syracuse. Lou Reed paid for 1/3 of his MFA. His poems are forthcoming in Fence. His band, Stabotage, rules; and this Saturday they're playing at the Kenton Club with Dean Gorman. His poems explore themes of greatness, wonderfulness, patience, charity, and sex. His favorite book is Leaves of Grass, which he one day hopes to go back in time and make obscure, so that he seems cooler. He's in the process of pulling a "Single White Female" on his mentor, Michael Burkard. He's taught at Portland State, Syracuse University, and the Onondaga Nation School.

Inaugural Reading: Tuesday, April 28th 7:30 pm: Kjirsten Severson & Karen Wood Hepner

2009-04-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

If Not For Kidnap Poetry invites you to a comfy night of linguistic terror[1] and love revelation[2] with two fantastic local poets:

trained in western philosophy and determined to say the impossible by escaping academic language,kjirsten severson was not prepared for her own writing that began to appear when she moved to portland from pittsburgh at the end of 2003. any readily recognized narrative became invisible.

she acquiesced to this unintentional shift and slowly began to develop her own ideas about what was being written. and what was not. currently, she best describes these pieces as an attempt to see a different humanity by breaking into us via cutting and stuttering language and its spaces, especially those key words and absences that frame our fundamental assumptions, but that we tend to rely upon without notice.

Karen Wood Hepner writes in the mood of a house haunted-- she creates landscapes inside rooms, hallways, cupboards, and under beds. Karen is fascinated by the movement between inner and outer landscapes, and writes poems that navigate these planes freely. In Karen’s world, what we thought we knew is always ending, we become disembodied, we enter realms that remind us of some kind of hope but don’t offer any. Yet at the same time Karen’s world is almost overly corporeal, carnal, raw. It’s in these meaty, tactile images that she moves us into something completely otherworldly where there is no safety or resolution, and we are very alone. Her poems unfold as truths from this silent space.

Karen’s work has appeared in North American Review, Miranda Literary Magazine, the Monterey Bay Poets’ Anthology, Folio, and Toyon. She was a finalist for the 2008 Wabash Prize in Poetry. She recently received her MFA in Writing at Vermont College, and also recently moved to Portland from California.

Where: 3968 SE Mall St., Apt A

When: Tuesday, April 28^th at 7:30

Come as you are, donations not turned down!

[1] there will probably be no actual terror

[2] there may be true love revelation, though INFKP cannot be held responsible either way